


The importance of being kindly remembered

by SrebrnaFH



Series: Monday Fix-Its [13]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Canon Divergence - A Study in Pink, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-26 11:17:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17744924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SrebrnaFH/pseuds/SrebrnaFH
Summary: John Watson meets Sherlock Holmes to see about that new flat they are supposed to rent together but it turns out he and Mrs. Hudson had met before.And she knows *things* about him.Monday Fix-its is a series of one-shots (or two-parters) that take a piece of cannon BBC Sherlock and fix it so that JohnLock would happen. It won't necessarily happen IN the story, but it is the aim or each of these stories. HEA for our boys is the priority.





	The importance of being kindly remembered

**Author's Note:**

> This one is late, because I just couldn't find the right idea.
> 
> Used the transcript by the wonderful Ariane DeVere (https://arianedevere.livejournal.com/43794.html) as basis for the beginning dialogue.

"Ah, Mr Holmes."

"Sherlock, please."

"Well, this is a prime spot. Must be expensive."

"Oh, Mrs Hudson, the landlady, she’s giving me a special deal. Owes me a favour. A few years back, her husband got himself sentenced to death in Florida. I was able to help out."

"Sorry – you said _Mrs Hudson_?"

Holmes - Sherlock - looked at him with a frown.

"I did, in fact, but..."

The door opened and a petite older woman smiled at them widely.

"Sherlock, hello... Oh, my goodness! Is this Doctor Watson!? Oh, what a surprise! You... But... Sherlock, how did you...? But no, I never told you," she put her hand on her hip and rubbed it slightly. "Well, this is unexpected, I must say! Come in, come in. You must tell me everything."

John managed to draw a breath and offered her a tentative smile.

"Come inside, I just put a kettle on. Through here... Oh, dear, Sherlock, don't tell me you wanted to invite doctor Watson upstairs, your living room looks terrible. He has brought in the most atrocious things, this boy."

"Ah, I..."

"Sit, sit. One thing I can promise for certain is that my tea is better than what you used to drink on your night shifts."

John finally found his tongue and managed to answer the little woman as he lowered himself into the soft chair by her table.

"Mrs. Hudson, Thames water is better than what we used to drink during night shifts and probably more nutritious, too."

That earned him another wide smile.

"Well, I do hope my tea is better than _that_ , but you will judge for yourself. Sit down, Sherlock, don't just stand around like this."

The tall man obediently folded down and sat on the bench behind the kitchen table, his long fingers quickly snatching a biscuit.

"Tell me what you've been up to since that hospital, it was so long ago..." she poured a perfectly looking cuppa and placed a china milk jug in the middle of the table. "He was the kind student I told you about, Sherlock, at Barts, all these years ago."

"Ah..." the detective unfurled from his hunched-over position. "The one who kept you sane after your hip replacement?"

"Talked to me for hours when the painkillers wore off and I wasn't due for more. They were stinting on morphine for some patients at the time... awful. Doctor Watson - he was just a student doing basic tasks then, yes? - he took pity on me."

"Well, I just wandered by and shared my paper with you," John looked aside. "It seemed like you could use a friend and the night shift was pretty dreary."

"Well, you left the crosswords for me to fill in and that was very gentlemanly of you. I was a bit worried when you told me that you'd be joining the Army soon... But then I went back to Florida and had no way to follow up..." she shook her head a bit. "So, what are you up to these days?"

"Doctor Watson is considering renting a part of my flat, Mrs Hudson," Sherlock interjected. "He is looking for a new accommodation and a friend suggested we could share."

"Oh, that would be perfect! Well, with your cane, will you be able to take the upstairs bedroom? No disrespect, doctor, but even after all the physiotherapy and medicine it would be hard for me to walk all these stairs up every day. Or are you two...?"

"N-no," Sherlock shook his head as John just sighed, but before he could answer, she continued blithely.

"Well, I'm just asking, because young people these days... I mean, I remember the way you and your boyfriend couldn't get your hands off each other, doctor Watson. What was his name? Matthew?"

"Mark," John blushed hotly as Sherlock's eyes raked all over him. "Well, we were... I suppose, we might have been... A bit overly enthusiastic."

"You were so sweet!" the landlady exclaimed. "Sherlock, I've never seen such a lovely pair... What happened to Mark then?"

John bit his lip and looked aside.

"He wasn't happy with me joining the Army. Said all soldiers were mindless drones and I will become one just like them. He..." John shook his head. "It ended badly. And once I was back, he only contacted me once and when we met and he saw I was..." he nodded to his leg and shrugged. "He made some remark about it being exactly what he meant and left. In a hurry, as if it was infectious."

"Oh. He seemed like such a sweet boy," she sighed, her eyes tensing. "It's a shame. And such nonsense, really. You are just as handsome as you were, just, well, a bit weathered. I must say, I was always quite keen on soldiers. Nothing beats a boy in a uniform. Upright, good posture, commanding look and all that. And you've got it all, doctor Watson. What rank do you have, military-wise?"

"Captain," Sherlock interrupted them suddenly. "Medical personnel, nurses are usually lieutenants, doctors are captains. Or majors, but..." he looked for a moment, but shook his head. "Captain. But you would have been promoted soon, if not for your injury."

John breathed deeply and pushed the instinctive reaction down, down, down.

Then he opened his eyes and gathered the words he needed to explain to that posh git that it was none of his business...

Sherlock was watching him with slightly pursed lips, a barely-there smile and wide eyes, full of curiosity and awe.

Honest awe.

John was not a brilliant detective who could read people like open books and guess their siblings' proclivities based on how much their phones were scratched, but he knew what an interested man looked like when he saw one.

_Well, well, well._

"Captain," he confirmed. "Captain John Watson, M.D., at your service."

A soft intake of breath on the other side of the table made him all warm and tingly inside.

It was nice to have naked admiration like this directed at him again.

John felt a tentative smile curling his lips as he looked up at the man opposite.

_This is going to be interesting._

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [my tumblr](https://srebrnafh.tumblr.com/).  
> [My writing blog.](https://fanfik.wordpress.com/)  
> [My handmade blog.](https://srebrna.wordpress.com/)
> 
> I am taking a writing course and one of the tasks is to ask my readers to describe my writing style in 3 adjectives. I'd be grateful if you could provide this kind of feedback :)  
> (if you provided it already somewhere else - THANK YOU! :))


End file.
